Agenda item

Area

Overspend/ (Under spend) to 30 Sept

Forecast outturn at 31 March

Reason

£’000

£’000

Service Delivery

(159)

(369)

The underspend for both the first six months and the outturn position largely related to the reduced activity levels, in particular for car allowances and smoke detector purchases.

Protection Transformation

-

-

The Protection Transformation department had been created as a result of the Authority being able to access £310k in grant from the Home Office to support our protection work in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.  The proposed department structure was approved at July Planning Committee, which incorporated new posts funded by grant, and posts transferred from other existing structures.

In addition, we received notification from the Home Office that we would be receiving £150k S31 grant in relation to the Grenfell inquiry outcomes, in particular to ensure that all Fire and Rescue Services have smoke hoods in place as a protection measure in the event of a major fire.  We received the funding in early November, and the purchase of smoke hoods and smoke curtains was underway, with plans to spend the remainder of the funding (circa £100k) under discussion with Service Delivery.

Covid-19

-

-

As previously reported, we received total funding of £1.4m.  We have spent £0.9m to date, with the balance being held in an earmarked reserve.  It was expected that any further costs associated with the ongoing pandemic, such as enhanced cleaning, additional staff costs etc. would be met from this fund. 

Youth Engagement

(118)

(30)

This budget included both the Prince’s Trust activities and the Fire Cadet units.  The year to date position arose from the amended delivery model for Prince’s Trust teams, where the residential fees and other team running costs were not being incurred.  The forecast position anticipated the transfer of the balance of unspent Prince’s Trust income into earmarked reserves to meet future running costs, but this would be brought for a decision during year end.  Fire cadet units had not been running since March, hence the expected year end underspend.

Training & operational review

(66)

(124)

The year to date and outturn position both reflected training which should have taken place in quarter one being pushed back, and the reduced onsite catering requirement during this period.  The outturn was based on an estimated level of training provision (including on-call and wholetime recruits) during the remainder of the year, which would be reviewed and monitored.

Fleet & Technical Services

(88)

(168)

The current underspend largely related to vehicle repairs and maintenance, where the anticipated (and budgeted) increases in the hourly rates charged by Lancashire County Engineering Services had been mitigated thus far by careful management and scrutiny of repairs passed to LCES, with use of alternative contractors where cost effective to do so.  In addition, we benefitted from free fuel offered by BP to emergency services during the first quarter, and there had also been a general reduction in spend on fuel and tyres.

Digital Transformation

-

-

The digital transformation department was created by moving staff from other departments (mainly Information Technology) to support the digital enhancement of the Service.  Currently the department only had pay budgets, but non-pay budgets may be reviewed and moved over in due course.

Property

(140)

(145)

As non-essential maintenance was put on hold in quarter 1, the spend to date showed an underspend. Whilst non-essential maintenance had been re-instated departmental capacity and the ongoing situation meant that we would not catch up from earlier underspends, hence the forecast year end underspend.

Non  DFM

195

759

Both the current and outturn positions reflected the £0.4m funding gap identified at the time of setting the budget in February.

The tender process for STC workshop and South Shore refurbishment had both resulted in significant increases in costs reflecting a general shift in pricing in the construction industry, as well as additional site overheads to meet new Covid requirements and design amendments. The Member Tender Panel had approved the award of both these contracts and the resultant increase in the capital programme, noting that this could be met from additional in-year revenue contributions due to the existing underspend.  As such the outturn also reflected the additional Revenue Contribution to Capital Outlay of £0.3m in respect of these projects.

Wholetime Pay (including associate trainers)

(469)

(638)

In anticipation of reduced staffing levels due to the pandemic 16 existing On Call staff who had been successful in the Wholetime recruitment campaign and who were initially due to commence on the recruits’ course in September were allowed to commence riding Wholetime appliances in May. This ceased once they commenced the recruits’ course in September. The additional cost of this was more than offset by additional 12 early leavers since the budget was initially set.

In addition, vacant posts were effectively budgeted at Firefighter rates, however there were a number of vacancies within TOR, Fire Safety and Service Development at higher grades, resulting in a further underspend.

The Protection Transformation funding of £310k reported above would be used to fund additional wholetime Protection posts, however there won’t be additional recruitment within the year to fill gaps arising within Service Delivery, hence the outturn position reported.

The outturn position included the completion of the September course and the anticipated January recruits’ course in addition to all of the above.

RDS Pay

212

366

The overspend reflected activity related payments for the first three months, which could be attributed to several moorland fire incidents during the period, a 36% higher activity level than the corresponding quarter last year.  Although these payments had reduced in quarter two, they were still 10% higher on average than the previous year.  We were currently assuming that these would continue at broadly the same levels for the rest of the year.

We would monitor the situation over the coming months and update in due course.

Support staff (less agency staff)

(74)

(92)

The underspend to date related to vacant posts across various departments, which were in excess of the vacancy factor built into the budget. Due to the initial cessation of recruitment activity due to the pandemic, and subsequent reduced recruitment activity, it was unknown when some of these posts might be filled, however it was clear there would be an underspend by the end of the financial year. 

Noted agency staff costs to date of £22k were replacing vacant support staff roles, this accounted for less than 1% of total support staff costs.

Pumping Appliances

The budget allowed for the remaining stage payments for 7 pumping appliances for the 2018/19 programme, which had all now been built and inspected and were undergoing the pre-delivery process, with anticipated deliveries taking place in December & January. 

In addition, the budget allowed for the purchase of 3 pumping appliances for the 2019/20 programme, and 2 pumping appliances for the 2020/21 programme, all of which had been delayed pending consideration of the specification and were expected to slip into the next financial year.

Other vehicles

This budget allowed for the replacement of various operational support vehicles, the most significant of which were:

·         Two Command Support Units (CSU), the documentation was being prepared in order to begin the procurement exercise in the new year;

·         One Water Tower;

·         One Aerial Ladder Platform;

·         One all-terrain vehicle

None of the above items were expected to be progressed to completion within the year, and were included in the slippage.

In addition to these, the budget allowed for various support vehicles which were reviewed prior to replacement, but were being progressed with further spend anticipated prior to the year end.

Operational Equipment / Future Firefighting

This budget allowed for completion of the kitting out of three reserve pumping appliances, in addition to providing a £50k budget for innovations in fire-fighting which were still being considered.

This budget also allowed for the progression of CCTV on pumping appliances, which was not expected to be spent during the financial year due to capacity issues within Fleet Services department.

Building Modifications

This budget allowed for:

• Provision of a new workshop, BA Recovery and Trainer facility at STC. Following completion of the tender process the total budget had been increased to £4.5m.  Work would shortly begin on site; however, the majority of the budget would be spent in the next financial year;
• NWAS co-location at Morecambe, this depended on arrangements with the PFI provider, but now seemed likely to slip into the next financial year;
• Based on the latest stock condition survey, several stations had budgeted upgrades to dormitory and shower facilities. A contract for South Shore refurbishment had been awarded, with works currently on site. However, the majority of spend on other upgrades would move into the following financial year.
• We have included budgetary provision for a drill tower replacement plan, and would seek to replace a notional 2 towers per year over the 5-year programme. Work was on-going to agree the specifications and priorities for this programme, and hence spend would slip into next year.

IT systems

The majority of the capital budget related to the national Emergency Services Mobile Communications Project (ESMCP), to replace the Airwave wide area radio system and the replacement of the station end mobilising system. The ESMCP project budget, £1.0m, was offset by anticipated grant, however the timing of both expenditure and grant was dependent upon progress against the national project. This national project had suffered lengthy delays to date, hence was included within slippage into the next financial year.

The balance of the budget related to the replacement of various systems, in line with the ICT asset management plan. Whilst initial scoping work was on-going to facilitate the replacement of some of these systems in the current year, we were still reviewing the need to replace others. Given the ongoing situation we only expect an outturn spend of circa £100k in the current year.